<p>I was talking about the excitement gap. Sure they say they’ll vote for him but whether they actually show up is a totally different question.</p>
<p>Look historically Republican base shows up more than democratic base. The military leans republican (that’s millions of votes) the evangelicals would come out in droves to stop Obama. The dems that wanted and fought for Hillary (who is not on the trail or the short list) will now switch over.</p>
<p>HIS BIGGEST PROBLEM…YOU CAN’T WIN AN ELECTION WITHOUT MIDDLE CLASS AMERICA…THAT WHOLE RUST BELT ISSUE WLL COME BACK AND BITE HIM.</p>
<p>Second problem he is alienating the liberals that voted for him in the primary…when MoveOn and Huffingtonpost calls him out he has problems</p>
<p>You see I read and listen to them all…everything from Drudge to Fox to Huffington to Randi Rhodes! If you listen and read them all you make the best decision</p>
<p>
Then your in-laws don’t care about any of the issues that Hillary Clinton cares about, and they are undermining her agenda and goals by voting for a candidate who disagrees with her on just about anything. </p>
<p>Are your in-laws at least gracious enough in their so-called support of Hillary Clinton to be donating money to help her retire her campaign debt?</p>
<p>From what I know of Hillary Clinton, I would guess that the most important issue to her would be in working toward enactment of a universal health care plan. Obama supports a plan very close to what she wants - the only sticking point is the issue of mandates. When Clinton returns to the Senate she will have the opportunity to work towards passage of the plan she wants. If the Democrats in Congress send the “Clinton Health Care Act of 2009” to Obama to sign, it will become law…</p>
<p>McCain will veto it. He is advocating the exact opposite: less regulation of health care, more reliance on the “free market” – which in the end will mean more uninsured people than ever before. </p>
<p>If you or your in-laws want to vote for McCain because you support his policies, fine. But don’t claim to be a Hillary Clinton supporter if you are voting to defeat her agenda in November. That’s sour grapes, not support.</p>
<p>Fortunately the candidate whose goals you now have forgotten has a lot more grace and courage than many of her so-called supporters – and she is and will be actively campaigning for Obama. (And I can guarantee you that John McCain won’t be considering any cabinet level appointments for Hillary – so if you would like to see anything like that in Hillary’s future … then you are going to have to vote for the candidate she supports right now).</p>
<p>Calmom:</p>
<p>Thanks for another sermon from the supporters of The One.</p>
<p>Some of us believe that that the biggest contribution we can make is working to blow up the Democratic Party of Nancy Pelosi, Harry Reid, Donna Brazille, James Clyburn, John Kerry, Jesse Jackson Jr. and The One by handing it a crushing defeat up and down the ticket in a year that should, by all rights, be a cakewalk. The party, IMO, is so corrupt and so morally bankrupt that it can never represent my views as currently configured and with total disdain for its own voters.</p>
<p>McCain’s policy on health care is to give each person a $5000 tax break when they buy health insurance, rather than tie health insurance to employers.</p>
<p>One secular trend for 25 years has been more and more independent contractors and entrepreneurs. These people are not provide health insurance by an employer because they are not employed, they work for themselves. </p>
<p>There are three big groups who don’t have health insurance. The self employed who I’ve just mentioned, young people in their 20’s and illegal immigrants. </p>
<p>Neither Obama nor McCain have a policy to required coverage of the 20 somethings. </p>
<p>It would take a “mandate” as Hillary was proposing, that all people are required to buy health insurance to get many younger people to buy it. Many of this group an afford to buy insurance. They choose not to buy it because they think it is too expensive. </p>
<p>The third group illegal immigrants are about 1/3 of those without health insurance. Obama’s says he won’t cover them, but then says he wants to provide health insurance to 47 million people without it in this country. That 47 million includes approximately 12 to 20 iillegal immigrants. The cost of insuring all those illegal immigrants? $75 billion dollars. </p>
<p>There are your options on health insurance.</p>
<p>The One and his top advisors such as John “Liveshot” Kerry have already stated that health reform is off the table. Selling out, just like on the FISA bill.</p>
<p>[Why</a> McCain has the best health-care plan - Mar. 11, 2008](<a href=“http://money.cnn.com/2008/03/10/news/economy/tully_healthcare.fortune/]Why”>Why McCain has the best health-care plan - Mar. 11, 2008)</p>
<p>To get true universal health care, mandates are needed. </p>
<p>There was an article a couple of weeks ago by a journalist from AP that looked at his health care plan, and he found out that it does not add up. I can’t find the article now.</p>
<p>This was in the WSJ (he is an advisor to the McCain campaign)</p>
<p>[McCain</a> Is the Radical on Health Reform - WSJ.com](<a href=“http://online.wsj.com/article/SB121737388416495023.html]McCain”>http://online.wsj.com/article/SB121737388416495023.html)</p>
<p>They have not talked much about how individuals are supposed to buy their own insurance, but I like the idea of competition.</p>
<p>Barack Obama is the least qualified major party candidate for the Presidency in the last 100 years and probably in all of American history.</p>
<p>He has had only three years in the US Senate, where he has accomplished nothing. </p>
<p>Who has evidence to the contrary?</p>
<p>Here are stats for the 100th Congress:</p>
<p>Bills sponsored:</p>
<p>Obama: 65
McCain: 22</p>
<p>Bills co-sponsored:</p>
<p>Obama: 364
McCain: 122 </p>
<p>source: opencongress.org</p>
<p>Here’s another interesting bit of info regarding our unaccomplished do-nothing. :)</p>
<p>[OpenCongress</a> - Sponsored Bills: Sen. Barack Obama [D, IL]](<a href=“OpenCongress - Track bills, votes, senators, and representatives in the U.S. Congress”>OpenCongress - Track bills, votes, senators, and representatives in the U.S. Congress)</p>
<p>Hindoo - Does your source reveal the disposition of those bills (i.e. whether they were voted on and/or signed into law). Nevermind, I’ll go check it out myself…</p>
<p>But I thnk it has more to do w/ QUALITY rather than QUANTITY.</p>
<p>(Also, judging from the incredible amount of funding requested by Obama, I bet many of those bills are requests for pork projects). Anyway, I’ll have a look at the bills in a bit.</p>
<p>How many of his bills have been signed in to laws, or have many have been debated in the senate? </p>
<p>You can introduce any bill, but if the senate does not debate the bills, then how effective is the bill?</p>
<p>bz2010. beat me to it.</p>
<p>bz–let me know what you find out. :)</p>
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</p>
<p>Given the state of the economy, the war, McCain continually self-inflicting wounds on himself and the overwhelming call for “change” in this country it should be a slaughter. I guess what’s keeping that from happening is the fact that:</p>
<ol>
<li> People see through Obama and his “change” promises. He is just another politician. No more, no less…</li>
<li> The Dems have the same mystique (curse) around them that the Cubbies do. Don’t worry…no matter how well it is going they will find a way to screw it up.</li>
<li> Obama’s support from within is starting to wane a little with all of the pandering he is doing (yes, McCain does it too but supposedly Obama was different). Whichever way the pollsters flag blows is the way he is going to go in his campaign. He is as unprincipled as the rest.</li>
</ol>
<p>pmr - your last point about “pandering” makes me wonder how much of anything during a campaign we should even consider. Isn’t it really all about what has taken place before the campaign and what we think will happen after the campaign is over.</p>
<p>Yes, I realize that a candidate’s behavior during a campaign might give us some insight into their character -but how much of that is really valid when there are advisors and others often running the show and making decisions. It’s rather like a “matchmaker” in a relationship making reccommendations about “this is what you need to do to get the girl”. The guy goes along b/c he figures the matchmaker is the expert & all he really wants to do is get the girl so he can show her what he’s really like. What “the girl” should really focus on is the person behind all the things he does to make her fall in love w/ him (like his record).</p>
<p>Like everyone, I don’t like pandering, and maybe this isn’t the best analogy, but as long as the candidate doesn’t LIE (which I saw/heard w/ my own eyes/ears yesterday during Obama’s speech), I’m going to focus on their political accomplishments & positions & their core principles.</p>
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<p>Agreed. I’ve long since stripped Obama of his Messianic garb in my kool-aid addled mind. 
He’s merely human after all, and a flawed one at that, but also with wonderful qualities I appreciate.</p>
<p>
Were more of his supporters and handlers to come to terms with the feelings you have expressed above, Senator Obama would win this election in one of the biggest landslides in modern times.</p>
<p>Well said.</p>
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<p>The one thing I failed to mention is that all of this is brought on by the voting public. We allow them to lie to us and get away with it. I don’t expect my politicians to be any less flawed that anyone else and unlike some I don’t hold them to a higher standard (which I should but I’m being realistic). The bottom line is, we as an electorate, don’t want to hear the truth. We wouldn’t know the truth if it smacked us in the face anyhow. We only want to hear the warm and fuzzies. The things that make our lives better and cushier. We are enabling the gridlock and stagnation of this country.</p>
<p>Obama will never win in a landslide…it’s not going to be a repeat of Reagan in 84. The reason I say this is because he has yet to break the 50% marker. Let’s remember during the dem primaries everyone was talking about how many more voters the dems were voting compared to the repubs. Now if all of those registered voters stayed with Obama he should be beating McCain by a landslide…yet, with registered and likely voters they are tied.</p>
<p>It is now becoming the topic if he is like Greg Norman…just can’t seal the deal when it matters!</p>
<p>I agree pmrlcomm…that is why I will not vote for any incumbent. If the politicians realize that they work at our pleasure, not theirs than maybe we will get something done. My only regret is I don’t live in San Francisco to get rid of Pelosi…the fact that she closed down congress so an energy bill couldn’t go up is absolutely revolting</p>
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<p>Even more than “warm and fuzzies,” we’re a nation obsessed with scandal. It’s far more interesting to think that McCain might have slept with a lobbyist or that Obama might be a muslim radical, than it is to consider their stands on issues. Too much work … not as titillating.</p>